Long Venice c. 1880

Editor: This is "Long Venice," an etching by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, created around 1880. It's such a subtle, almost ghostly depiction of the city. It feels both distant and incredibly intimate. What do you make of this, seeing it here? Curator: You've picked up on that ghostliness perfectly, which is really down to Whistler's method. Etching allows for this delicate web of lines, capturing light and atmosphere in a way that's more suggestive than declarative, wouldn’t you say? And look at the composition – the buildings hugging the horizon, mirrored by those swirling, moody clouds. It's almost a sigh on paper. Does Venice sigh like that, I wonder? Editor: Definitely, but why choose this viewpoint, so far back? Curator: I wonder if he's showing us Venice not as a solid, knowable thing, but as a fleeting impression, a memory almost. It’s very much aligned with the Impressionist sensibility. What’s fascinating too is his commitment to showing the "real" Venice, not just the postcard view. It makes me think of that line by Proust: "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." Don’t you think Whistler is giving us new eyes here? Editor: That's a great way to put it. I'm definitely seeing more depth than I did at first glance, and a perspective that shows you can look past the surface to get a much richer image of what it can really mean to see Venice. Curator: Exactly! Art whispers secrets, doesn't it?